SingaporeBowling
SingaporeBowling (SBF), formerly known as Singapore Tenpin Bowling Congress, was constituted in 1963 at a time when the sport of Tenpin Bowling was strictly for the recreational past time of a privileged few.
SingaporeBowling is the National governing body of the Sport of Tenpin Bowling in Singapore and recognised as such by the Singapore National Olympic Council and the Government, the latter through its Ministry of Sports and the Singapore Sports Council. It is also recognised as such by the Asian Bowling Federation (ABF), the World Tenpin Bowling Association (WTBA) and the Fédération International des Quilleurs (FIQ).
MISSION
To make Singapore "Top of Mind" country associated with Tenpin Bowling.
Its objectives are:
To PROMOTE Singapore as a competitive bowling nation
To NURTURE and develop its athletes to their full potential in terms of passion, skills, technique and competitive spirit
To STRIVE to elevate the popularity of bowling through working closely with SSC industry players, schools, clubs
To DEVELOP and implement focused strategies to rekindle the sport and to make it viable for player, vendors and sponsors
To CAPITALIZE Bowling's unique 'ease of play' nature to form a platform for community/family bonding
VALUES
To instill into SingaporeBowling a spirit of integrity, professionalism and public spiritedness
HISTORY
Tenpin Bowling was initially confined to the private lanes of the American Club for obvious reasons - the sport was already a flourishing multi-million dollar industry with it's popularity among Americans of all ages, forcing the export of this US-penchant to the rest of the world, including Singapore.
Singaporeans were finally provided its first public centre when Jackie's Bowl Orchard opened her doors to 12-hour long waiting lists of curious locals on Christmas Eve in 1965.
Local bowling legend Henry Tan was one of those curious Singaporeans. He remembered that there was "so much desire to get a touch of this new sport called bowling" that people actually took tokens to book a lane for 12 hours later.
That signaled the start of a bowling boom of sorts as bowling centres sprouted all over the island. The development spiral however, had its misgivings as the owners of these bowling centres were in fact property developers who saw a great opportunity to reap loads of cash from a retail business that they had little or no expertise or experience in.
The trend has continued some 44 years now with the commercial incentives of the sport overpowering the efforts of SingaporeBowling to promote and propagate Tenpin Bowling as a sport where Singaporeans stand realistic opportunities to attain competitive success at the regional and international levels - in other words, Sports Excellence.
The highly technical nature of the sport has made excellent ball sense insufficient to carry a bowler with great potential, to the pinnacle. The ability to read the lanes - much like a golfer reading the putting green - comes through proper instruction and practice. The ability to deliver the ball accurately all the time comes through getting the body mechanics fine-tuned and well balanced so that all that can be done has been done to facilitate a perfect delivery.
The commercial bowling centres, while enjoying the monetary fruits of the sport's popularity among Singaporeans, have somewhat neglected the basics of the sport in so far as a trained bowler will bowl more regularly than the social bowler. They have not needed to worry about this, as the composition of their lineage is irrelevant to their bottom-line. And, lineages at most of Singapore's commercial centres have been extremely healthy even to date. The exceptions are few and far between when one considers the millions of dollars of cash that the commercial centres have raked in and will continue to rake in.
The burden of promotion and development has therefore fallen squarely on the shoulders of the Federation all these years. With barely enough to maintain a Secretariat, let alone a Director of Coaching and the National Youth Development Squads, the Federation has weathered the negatives rather well, achieving success at SEA Games, Asian Games, World Games and regional and world FIQ tournaments with surprising regularity. It has also successfully hosted, among other things, the 1973 Bowling World Cup, 1983 SEA Games, 1984 FIQ Asian Championships, 1991 FIQ World Championships, 1993 SEA Games, 1998 1st Asian Schools' Championships and the 1999 FIQ Asian Youth Championships.
SingaporeBowling Today
SingaporeBowling today is headed by Mrs Jessie Phua, whose involvement with bowling dates back to 1994 when she was the Chairman of SingaporeBowling's Youth Development Programme. In 2002, she was elected President of SingaporeBowling.
Mrs Jessie Phua, formerly the FIQ President, is ably assisted by a high-powered team of Council Members and each has contributed in no small way towards the successes of SingaporeBowling - the most recent being:
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